Another Year, A New Beginning

It is hard to think that a new year is beginning. I am still trying to cope with 2016, aren't you?
This new year is coming like a freight train and as is said time and tide waits for no man or woman! But we will all "adjust and monitor" as we teachers know how to do. January 17, 2017 is proving to be an exciting meeting for the CCREA. We will be regaled with a fashion show thanks to Joan and her daughter. Don't forget that our meeting place has changed. We will be at the North Charleston Methodist church which is almost on the corner of Spruill and Montague, of course, in North Charleston. It is directly across the railroad tracks from the parking lot at North Charleston High School.  Or it is across from the restaurant Sesame's. This will be a great meeting. I am sure Team 3 (?) will provide wonderful teats for our lunch. I may not be there as I will be coming home from North Carolina. But I hope to see you there.
Happy New year!

November Meeting

I wish that more of our members had attended to hear our superintendent. She was a refreshing breath of air. She spoke about her background and then looked to the future to set goals: improve learning, be financially sound, and boost teacher morale. There were lots of concepts with each of the goals. I did not realize what a low percentage of our students were not ready to attend post high school centers of learning. She gave alarming statistics that only 10% of our graduates were ready to attend Trident Tech. 90% have to take remedial classes which the students pay for but get no credit. Such a sad commentary on our school systems. I think the thing that impressed me most was that Dr. Postelwait went around to each table and had each member present introduce herself and the school each had retired from.
The food prepared by the team was delicious. They could fix my lunch anytime. Door prizes were awarded. I forgot my camera but I did take a few with my phone which are usually not too clear but I shall see and I can add one or two later.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

November Meeting

I hope all of you are safe and well and dry. We are OK here...just a whole bunch of limbs down. But we are already cleaned up and awaiting pickup. Our next meeting should prove to be an interesting one. Our new super of schools will be here to entertain us. I wonder what she will tell us. Remember Team 2 will be providing the refreshments. Please remember to get to the hall early as we have to help set up. And then please stay after so we can get cleaned up. We may not be in the same place as before. I guess we will find out when we get there.

Our First Meeting

What a great meeting it must have been. I am sorry I missed this first one. Here are the notes sent to me by Sandy. Thanks, Sandy.
Association Business:
 We have 48 paid members with 30 in attendance. That is pretty good. Maleeta, our membership chair, provided floral arrangement for each table which were used as door prizes. Judy Jordan won the $50 gas card. Congrats!





Several of our members need our thoughts and prayers: Rebecca Jones has had gall bladder surgery. Theresa Johnson's daughter is in Atlanta fighting leukemia. Shirley Bledsoe is facing more surgeries. Paige Rumph fell and broke her pelvis. Ouch!! So drop them a card or a little note and add them to your prayers.
Volunteers are needed at Roper Hospital and Hospice of Charleston. Can we each set aside a little time to help out?
The treasurer gave a report and we look to be in fairly good shape. But we need more donations for a scholarship fund.

We now have teams instead of clusters. Oh well...different name but similar duties. Each new team will provide refreshments for one meeting. Each team will also be asked to show up a little early to help set up and stay after to clean up. Here is the schedule of dates and teams:

Team 1: September 20...done!
Team 2: November 17
Team 3: January 17
Team 4: April 18
Sounds like a plan to me.

Community events:
1.  Grace United Methodist Church is sponsoring a Senior Help Day in West Ashley on October 25 from 9:30 to 1:30. Lunch is included. Sounds like this will be interesting.
2. The North Charleston Methodist Church is holding their Fall Bazaar on November 11 and 12.  There will be loads of fun.

At the conclusion of the business part our guest speaker was introduced. Margie Willis Clary spoke to the members about her career of writing and storytelling.  She began constructing poems when she was in the third grade. This was a valentine to a boy she knew. She continued to write poems and later in life began writing stories. She taught first grade for 19 years. I imagine she had quite a few good stories from her students. She has served as an adjunct prof at the Citadel and CSU and later served as an "Artist in Residence" at different schools. Mrs. Clary has written several books with settings in the lowcountry: Sweet, Sweet Basket, Searching for Lights, and The Gullah Alphabet. She is currently working on her first novel set during the Civil War on a plantation on Johns' Island which will revolve around a coming home story following the war. Should be interesting.

Hope to see you all at our November meeting when Dr. Postelwait, CCSD super, will be our guest.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016, First Meeting

Our first meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 20. Our business meeting will begin at 11:00.The guest speaker is Margie Willis Clary. Mrs. Clary is a retired educator, author and Storyteller. We will partake of  a wonderful luncheon provided by Team 1. Yes, I said Team 1. Clusters are no longer part of our plan. So you get to select which team you want to join.  A gas card will be awarded among other door prizes. So be sure to get you membership forms into Judy quickly.
The programs for this year look quite interesting.  I mean we have the mayor of Charleston and the Super of CCSD schools. Should be exciting and very informative. Thanks Maleeta for a great program brochure!I am attaching a copy of the brochure.

Brochure Page 1

Brochure Page 2

Almost September

I hope you all are doing well in these "dog days of summer." It sure has been a sweltering one. But it is a tad cooler today. We like to be able to sit on our back screened porch and sip coffee and listen to the never-ending drone of traffic down Savannah Highway. I cannot tell you what our programs will be this year. The flyer has not been finalized. Hopefully it will be out soon. I am looking forward to our meetings this year. See you soon in September.

It is August!

The first day of school has come and gone. I know we are all so happy to be where we are instead of in a classroom. We have moved on to new phases of life. That is a good thing. I think we all need to say a prayer that our children and teachers have a safe and productive year. Hope you all will be at our first meeting. 

Is it hot enough for you?

Wow! the heat wave continues. Maybe there will a rain event this afternoon. It may help or make the heat  and humidity worse. I hope you all read the Sunday paper. There was a wonderful article by Warren Pepper about our member, Madeleine Shuler. I did not know she once was a cover girl for The Citadel. Here is the link for the article in case you missed it or do not get the paper. Just click below.

About Madeleine Shuler

July Heat

Wow! It sure is hot. Hope you all are staying cool. We are looking forward to another year of meetings, fellowship, and food. Just remember to encourage your friends and colleagues to join our group. We are also excited about our program. We are sure our new executive board has developed great, informative speakers and programs. September is right around the corner!

CCREA Luncheon May 19, 2016

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took at our meeting.
CCREA Scholarship Awards' Luncheon
I hope you enjoy this presentation.

Podcasting My Notes

I have recorded a podcast for our last meeting.
Final Meeting

The Scholarship

Thursday, May 19, marks the end of another successful year for our CCREA. It is at this banquet that we award one and possibly two scholarships. The candidates have to complete an application as well as construct an essay.  Then, a committee reviews all applications and essays.Winners are chosen from the best. The recipient(s) are invited to our final luncheon at which time the scholarships are awarded. I hope we had enough funds for two this year. It is comforting to know that young people are still going into teaching.
Good times...good times.

Just A Reminder

Happy May! The weather is so, so nice. I hope you are all getting outside and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Our next meeting is May 19. That's a Thursday. We will install our new officers and award scholarships. It is going to be exciting. Don't forget to make and bring a salad.

Your salads are always wonderful.
Here are some links below to recipes if you want to try something different or just be adventurous!

All Recipes

Simply Recipes

Better Homes and Gardens

Martha Stewart

See you there! Bring a friend.

Just Older Youth

Members are just getting ready and chatting with friends.

Shirley and Ginny catch up.



The Framptons are here.

Happy 95th Miss Becky!

The food is ready. It was delicious. Thanks, Cluster 3! Great job!

Our meeting was a great one. All of the usual order of business was conducted as well as election of new officers for the next two years. The "voting" was accomplished by acclamation.  It was a lot quicker than our national election will be. Our speaker, Belinda Swindler, was introduced. She told us of the great classes that North Charleston offers its senior citizens.The link to its programs and activities is below:
North Charleston Parks and Recreation for Seniors
These activities look like lots of fun. Hope some of you can join in on all the action.

April 4 Meeting

Wow! It is hard to believe that it is almost April. Our next meeting is this coming Monday. Almost the last one. We will vote for new officers. We have a good slate. Hope lots of members will be present. We will also have a guest speaker who will let us in on what is available for senior citizens in the north area. Wish I knew what was also available for us In West Ashley and Mt. Pleasant and surrounding areas. I ask: why have we not had someone from the senior center on James Island to talk to us. Oh well...just remember that we all do not live and/or visit the north area. See you at the meeting.

Red, White, Blue

On  Thursday, February 18, our members were treated to a great catered lunch and wonderful and inspiring entertainment. The tables were decorated in red, white and blue. Our member Ginny outdid herself but then again she always does.

The tables were very patriotic and inviting.

The culinary students from West Ashley High prepared a delicious meal!

The School of the Arts singers gave us a very uplifting performance. Several students read their slam poems which were delightful.

We all enjoyed the meeting. Thanks to all who worked hard to deliver such performances and food.

There is hope for the future. These students were inspiring! May their futures be bright.

Cluster 1 Valentine's Treats

Yesterday members of Cluster 1 wrapped Mounds bars to give a little treat for Valentine's Day to the faculty and staff of North Charleston Elementary School. We know that the members of the staff there will enjoy these treats. Our saying on each of the candy bars was: "We appreciate the "mounds" of work you do. Small things can sometimes make a big impact. We hope other clusters are doing some small things too.

    

January 15, Cluster 3, and Mary Ford ES

Our cluster 3 provided lunch to the faculty and staff at Mary Ford Elementary School. This school is near Cosgrove Avenue and is in a high poverty area of North Charleston. From the comments I believe all had wonderful food and fellowship. I have added three pictures of this festive outing. Kudos to Cluster 3...great job!

It is snowing in the Lowcountry?

It certainly has been a roller-coaster weather ride these last few days. I hope you all are dry and warm. We just got back from North Carolina where it snowed last Saturday night. Of course it was almost all gone by lunchtime.
Just a couple of reminders:
1. Nominations are due for officers ASAP. Please send your nominee's name to Carol O.
2. The flyer for the Red, White and Blue luncheon will be coming out shortly. Be sureto send in your form and the money to Paige.
Hope it gets warmer soon.

It was a light and fluffy snow fall.

"We Have a Voice..."

Today's meeting was attended by about half of our members. Several wrote me to say that they could not attend.They missed an informative sessions. Our secretary as well as our treasurer gave reports.  Our scholarship chair encouraged more donations so that we can fund two scholarships. She also read a thank you note from a previous scholarship recipient and met another recipient at the Friends of the Library book sale. This recipient was buying lots of books and is already teaching  at North Charleston Elementary. Cluster 3 took mugs filled with candy and other things for each faculty and staff member at NCES on December 10.  Next our current vice-president introduced our guest speaker. She spoke of the Justice Ministry. She gave a brief outline of the formation and mission of the group This group is a grass roots organization that is dedicated to bettering our community. After much research and discussion the group focused in on education specifically literacy. And through their massive persistence and dedication changes were voted in by the school board to expand CD programs to an additional 250 four-year-old children. The research the group conducted spoke volumes about the need for students to be reading on grade level by the fourth grade. If the child does not accomplish this his success rate in school diminishes. It also does not bode well for students becoming productive members of society. The group is now focusing on developing programs of prevention and intervention to keep youngsters out of the juvenile detention centers. A rally will be held in the near future. This group seems to be getting things done where other groups(like teachers) are stymied in their efforts to change things for all students. This is just a very brief summary of what our speaker told us about the Justice Ministry. Our speaker said to us, "We now have a voice..." Why have we not seen or heard anything through our media outlets about this group and what they have accomplished???

Our members listened carefully to our speaker.

Our group then had lunch which was provided by Cluster 2. The food was delicious. You should have been there.

The quiet before the storm.

Members enoying the great food.!

A New Year, A New Beginning

Good Morning,
What a great day Sunday is. It is a day of rest and relaxation. But come Tuesday our CCREA members will begin the process of nominating new officers. I hope all of our members will be in attendance. It is so important that everybody attends. Lots of members have a problem with the idea of our cluster groups. These groups were started to share the work load of setting up, providing refreshments, and cleaning up for one meeting each year. Some of the ideas were just suggestions. I am sorry that some members have decided not to join again because of clusters. So clusters will remain but we are looking to simplify all. So each cluster will be responsible for three things: setup, food, and cleanup once each year! Nothing else is expected of each cluster. So pass this along as you talk to those members who have not joined and ask them to reconsider.
See you at Tuesday's meeting.

Made any resolutions yet??